


Where Kids May Safely Play, July 1976

by BobbyCrocker101



Category: Kojak (TV 1973)
Genre: 1970s, Detectives, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gen, Manhattan South, NYPD, New York City, Paedophiles, diplomatic immunity, homicides, murders, special agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:55:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23068105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BobbyCrocker101/pseuds/BobbyCrocker101
Summary: Kojak’s thoughts concerning the events that occurred in the Season 4 episode 'A Need to Know' with a few changes and bits added.This is an original story set in July 1976.Feedback welcome





	Where Kids May Safely Play, July 1976

**Author's Note:**

> None of the characters belong to me; I'm just playing with them for a while before putting them back in their box. No money is being, or will be made from this story.
> 
> I was 15 in September 1973 when "Kojak" first aired, and had other things to do. Now I'm retired I’ve finally watched this wonderful old TV show for the first time. I’m from the UK and have never visited the US, but have made use of the internet to gain information about the NYPD and the city of New York. I apologise in advance for any language confusion.
> 
> In the Season 2 episode “Nursemaid” (1974) Crocker’s ID shows him to have been born in 1943 which would make him 33 in 1976, but because he's occasionally referred to as being very young and is often called "Kid" or "Junior", my version of him was born in 1951 which makes him 25 in this story, and since little is known about his back story I've made up my own version.
> 
> Spoilers: Major spoilers for the season 4 episode "A Need to Know". 
> 
> Original characters: Although the characters of 'Peter', the mother who made the original ID during the stake-out, the psychiatrist and the detective at the wine bar with Stavros appear in the show, they were unnamed. I've called them Peter Montoya, Mrs Maria Gomez, Dr Anita Feldman and Detective Baker. 
> 
> Warning: Although this story concerns a paedophile, nothing is mentioned concerning what he does. There is also a hint of a possible homosexual pick-up, but again no details have been included.
> 
> Enjoy!

If there’s one thing Crocker excels at it’s organising a good stake-out, and the one he set up earlier today was no exception. I’d sat in on the final briefing he'd given to the ‘troops’ and listened, impressed, as he laid out his plan. Up until a year ago the kid, despite giving the impression of being full of confidence, would never have stood up to talk to a room full of people. But thanks to a couple of college courses on public speaking, he was now confident enough in the task Frank had begun sending him out to speak at local schools and colleges; always a useful PR exercise as far as the Department was concerned. 

The stake-out on this particular occasion had been set up in Steward Park where it was hoped a man, who was suspected of molesting two children there earlier this week, would make a return visit. Crocker’s plan had been simple. He’d selected a small team for inside the park; Stavros, who would be selling ice-creams from a cart (a job he was just born for) and Saperstein, who would be dressed as an attendant walking about here and there picking up litter. Crocker himself would be concealed among some kids he'd arranged a basketball game with. The hope was that the ice-cream cart would act like a magnet to any kids in the immediate vicinity and thus to our ‘target’. A couple of uniformed officers would be positioned discretely near each exit, and hidden behind a fence would be another uniformed officer with Mrs Maria Gomez, the mother of the man’s most recent victim, ready to make the identification should he reappear. Each officer would be carrying a radio.

Mrs Gomez had already provided a basic description of the man: about five feet eight, small built, beard, moustache, glasses and a ‘funny’ accent.

**** 

By eight o’clock the team was in place; all they had to do was wait. With it being the summer break the park was soon full of kids, and shortly after ten o’clock a man matching the description of our suspect was spotted entering from Essex Street. The team watched as he wandered over to Stavros to buy an ice-cream for himself, and then offered to buy one for every child in the immediate vicinity. Pretending to be busy working Stavros watched and listened in silence as the man started paying particular attention to one small blond-haired boy; letting him try on his hat and asking for his assistance in finding a missing puppy. All of this was being watched closely by Crocker and Saperstein, and once Mrs Gomez had positively identified the man as the one who’d abused her son the team went into action, and began to close in on the ‘target’ as he began to walk the boy in the direction of Canal Street. 

The plan had been to move in slowly on our suspect and grab him without any fuss, but he somehow got spooked and then the boy’s mother had spotted him with her son and began screaming, thus alerting the man to the police presence. But between them the team managed to steer him away from the park exits and thanks to Crocker’s ‘expertise’ at jumping high fences managed to get him cornered outside the public restrooms which were closed for repairs. Crocker read the man his rights and put the cuffs on him personally. It was indeed a job well done – or so we thought.

****

Once the ‘prisoner’ had been delivered to the precinct he was put into a line-up where three separate people including Tommy Chambers, the blond-haired boy from the stake-out had picked him out straight away. Bless the kid; he asked if the man had found his dog. I assured him the animal was safe. 

Inside the interrogation room our ‘prisoner’ gave his name as Carl Dettrow. He refused to provide any further information about himself, but had plenty of questions. He wanted to know why he was at the station. I informed him as politely as I could that it was because when he’d been picked up he'd had no wallet, no ID and had been seen walking a child away from its mother. He then stunned me by informing me that American children laugh more easily than their European counterparts and he liked talking to them: that it wasn’t a crime to do so. I’ve met paedophiles before over the years. Sometimes they come older, sometimes they come younger, rich or poor; it makes no difference. They all have the same problem; they hurt children. Forgetting the captain was in the room I grabbed Dettrow by the collar and if it hadn’t been for Frank pulling me away I don’t know what I would have done. 

A uniformed officer was called in to take Dettrow away and read him his rights again. As he was being led down the corridor he reminded us that he was entitled to make one phone call. Nothing wrong with his English when it came to the ‘technicalities’ I noticed. Frank did his best to calm me down, and asked me to deal with Dettrow personally, but with kid gloves, tick all the boxes, do it right. At that moment Saperstein appeared and informed the captain there was a phone call for him. 

****

I wandered into the squad room to find the men in high spirits and they had every right to be so. I made sure to tell them that they’d done a great job. While we were chatting I received a message to say that Frank wanted to see me; surprisingly not in his office, but up town across the street from the UN building, and that it was extremely urgent.

Fifteen minutes later I met up with him on 1st Avenue and was introduced to Federal Agent Donald Mosher. Before J Edgar Hoover died in 1972 no one would have dared to criticise the FBI, but these days it was open season. I’ve made no secret of my dislike of the Feds and the moment I shook hands with Federal Agent Mosher alarm bells began going off in my head, with good reason as it turned out. It appeared they were claiming jurisdiction over our prisoner, because he was a foreign embassy employee and WE had no right to hold on to him. In fact WE had no need to know anything! The man had diplomatic immunity, something he’d conveniently forgotten to mention during our ‘chat’ earlier. 

Despite being positively identified by two mothers as the man who'd molested their children Federal Agent Mosher ‘politely’ informed us that their office would handle things from now on, no matter what Dettrow had done. He insisted we were to keep no photographs, no prints or anything else on file and there was to be no publicity; we were to release Dettrow as we would any ordinary citizen and without drawing any attention to him. Politely but angrily I reminded Frank that WE had arrested Dettrow not the Feds, but it was no use. Mosher was under orders and we could do nothing but put a dangerous man back out on the streets. I felt sick. Mosher gently but firmly reminded us that his office would handle everything. I thought they were going to an awful lot of trouble for a foreign embassy chauffeur, if that’s indeed what Dettrow was, and said so. I realised of course that someone would need to contact the precinct to arrange Dettrow’s release. Frank chickened out and claimed he didn’t have a dime for the public phone, so it was left to me to do the dirty work. 

****

I was really hoping Crocker wouldn’t be the one to answer the phone but my hopes were dashed as soon as I heard his voice on the other end of the line. I was glad I couldn’t see his face when I broke the news that he was to make all the necessary preparations to release our prisoner. At first he thought I was joking with him, and that it was a very bad joke. He’d then angrily told me that if I wanted Dettrow released I would have to do it myself because HE wasn’t going to do it and then he slammed the phone down. Any other day I would have bawled him out for speaking like that to a superior, but after the hour I’d just had I couldn’t blame him for speaking his mind. I turned to Federal Agent Mosher and asked him what would happen if Dettrow got into trouble again? What would I say to my men? To the parents of the children he abused? Where could WE buy immunity from this psychopath? Once again the Federal Agent assured me that we had no cause for concern; his office would take care of everything. Reaching the end of my tether I told him he’d better take a long walk because I DON’T have diplomatic immunity.

****

Forty-five minutes later I was sitting in my office when Saperstein brought Dettrow into the room. The man seemed surprised not to have been released straight away, but I wanted to talk to him before I allowed him to leave, give him one last chance of salvation. The moment he was seated he started playing his games again, reminding me that I had no right to keep him. No I hadn’t, I informed him, but I did have the right to talk to him. I told him I wanted him to ask us to help him, for him to sign himself into a hospital in order to find out what makes him do the things he does, but he just looked at me as if I was nuts. I told him that without help he would continue to hurt children until he’s stopped either by a doctor, a prison cell, or a police bullet. Hoping he would understand I told him I didn’t want that. He stood up and excused himself.

****

No cop enjoys working on cases that involve kids, but Crocker is always particularly affected by them. I know he had a rough start in life, and knowing how much he cares I wasn’t entirely surprised to learn that he’d followed Dettrow when he left the precinct. To begin with Stavros had covered for him and had told me he'd gone out in response to a call, but I’d guessed the truth, and I was ‘rewarded’ a couple of hours later when he called me on the phone. But before I left to meet with him Stavros dropped a bombshell. It turned out Dettrow had been arrested two years ago in Washington DC for child molestation. His embassy had become involved and the case dropped – mistaken identity. I knew in that moment that the Feds were up to something, and it couldn’t be anything good.

****

I met my detective outside Washington Square Park where Dettrow had been sat playing chess for the past hour and I reminded him that we shouldn’t be there. I asked him if Dettrow had made any stops near places where there are kids. Crocker informed me the man had first been to visit a psychiatrist (he gave me the name and address), and then he’d followed him as he caught a bus to the Waterfront where he’d met an oriental gentleman who was pretending to be a tourist complete with camera, and the two of them had sat side by side acting as if they didn’t know one another. My detective had then followed Dettrow when he left the Waterfront and caught another bus to Washington Square Park where he was now sitting with another gentleman. Crocker seemed to think Dettrow was a ‘fruitcake’. I asked him if he thought the incident at the Waterfront had been some kind of ‘pick-up’, but he told me I shouldn't be asking because HE wasn’t supposed to be tailing the man because he’s ‘special’ right? I decided I’d go and visit the psychiatrist and told Crocker to be careful, VERY careful, as I didn’t know what we’d got here and it was worrying me. We spotted Dettrow leaving the park and getting into a cab. I headed off to visit the shrink while Crocker whistled down another cab and continued his surveillance. 

****

I was lucky. Given the nature of my enquiry Dr Anita Feldman agreed to see me straight away, and I learned a lot from her during my visit. A child molester, she informed me, is like an alcoholic or a gambler in that they are driven by a compulsion, and each has his or her own. Many times they can be treated, but in order for the treatment to work they have to stay out of two areas. One: the target of their compulsion, in the case of Dettrow – children. And two they must stay away from situations that aggravate the need for contact. Given that New York has a population of more than ten million I imagined it would be very difficult for a man like Dettrow to stay away from the target of HIS compulsion. 

****

If there’s something that Crocker is not so good at, apart from playing poker, it’s tailing people on foot. If I’d had the authority to tail Carl Dettrow I would have used a team of officers, but because Crocker had, in effect, disobeyed orders and gone out alone, and Frank hadn’t yet noticed his absence I allowed him to continue his surveillance and left him clear instructions: to make a full report; everywhere Dettrow goes and everyone he sees. I also told him more than once to be very careful. That said I can’t say I was shocked when the call came through to say that he’d been involved in a ‘diplomatic incident’ down town and had been taken to the FBI's office on Federal Plaza to explain himself. After all it was Crocker who had arrested Dettrow in the first place and the man was bound to have recognised him if he allowed himself to get too close.

I managed to speak to Frank before Crocker arrived back at the precinct. It seemed he’d followed Dettrow to the Abbey Tavern: a wine bar on East 26th Street. Standing across the road he had witnessed an incident between Dettrow and a small boy, and the boy’s father. Then our ‘target’ had left the bar in something of a hurry. Crocker had crossed the road and followed. He hadn’t gone far when he felt a gun in his back. He was then roughly shoved into an alley where he’d managed to turn round and hit his assailant with a right hook: knocking the man off balance, which gave him enough time to pull his gun out and shoot the guy in the arm. After a lot of angry words were exchanged it turned out his assailant was an FBI agent. 

I was furious and immediately phoned the Feds, leaving a message for Federal Agent Mosher to phone me back immediately.

Finally, Crocker walked into the squad room. With his head down I couldn’t see his face, but from the way he was walking I could tell he was mad as hell. I asked him if he was alright, he angrily said he felt like an embarrassed cop, that Dettrow had set him up. I told him that it was his own fault because he hadn’t listened to my warning, to be careful. Why are the Feds so interested in a mere chauffeur, and why had Dettrow contacted THEM instead of his own people when he realised he was being tailed? Something didn’t add up.

Despite his protests, I ordered Stavros to go find Dettrow and continue the surveillance on him. At that moment the phone rang; it was Federal Agent Mosher returning my call. I informed him that Dettrow had added to his ‘talents’ and had set up my detective to be hit by one of the FBI’s own 'goons'. He was ‘kind’ enough to ask how Crocker was, and I took great pleasure in telling him that Crocker was angry, but that HIS man was in surgery. One up for us! Despite Crocker getting into trouble I was proud of the kid. Of course Mosher tried to make out that they hadn’t known it was one of MY men they'd hit and that the whole incident had been ‘unfortunate’. I informed him that he’d lied to us from the beginning, that thanks to him a dangerous man was back walking the streets, a man who two years ago had been picked up for child molestation in Washington, DC and was now ‘plying his trade’ here in New York City. Mosher assured me that the Feds now had the situation under control. I asked him if he had Dettrow’s stress under control, if they’d changed his working conditions. I told him that I’d cheated, that I’d been briefed - by his psychiatrist, and that I knew that pressure, anxiety and concern could trigger his compulsions. I honestly think that Mosher didn’t know what I was talking about. It occurred to me then that Dettrow’s ‘weakness’ may be the reason the Feds were so interested in him, which they were despite their protestations to the contrary. They obviously had some sort of deal going with him. Unbelievable! I ended our conversation by informing Federal Agent Mosher that unless Dettrow was delivered to me quickly I would blow the lid. If we’re going down, we’re going down fighting.

I ‘offered’ Saperstein the chance to get ‘busted’ like Crocker, an assignment he more than willingly accepted, and told him to find Mosher and tail him. I figured that at some point his and Dettrow’s paths would intersect. Then we might finally learn what it was we apparently had no need to know.

****

Later on I received a phone call from Stavros. He and Detective Baker had picked up Dettrow’s trail at the wine bar he’d visited earlier. Obviously the place was important to him. But somehow my men had managed to lose him shortly afterwards. In the background I could hear a lot of shouting and asked what was going on. Stavros asked me to come to the tavern quickly as it appeared the owner’s son, Peter Montoya had gone missing. 

****

The bar owner was naturally frantic with worry. He and his family had only recently bought the place and his wife worked in an office to help pay the bills. Their son Peter usually stayed with him at the bar during the school holidays because they couldn't afford a nursery school. Although we weren’t supposed to have it, we still had a copy of Dettrow’s photograph in our file. I gave the barman a box of mugshots to look through and he eventually picked out the card for Carl Dettrow. I went cold. 

****

As I left the bar I bumped into Frank. He informed me that he’d managed to arrange a meeting with Mosher’s boss. My main concern was that the Feds wouldn’t cooperate, but Frank, sly devil that he is, suggested that if they don’t then we should tail them after the meeting. We’d already guessed that they had contact with Dettrow so if they refused to hand him over we’d just tail them until we found him. I informed Frank that I already had Saperstein on Mosher and Stavros on Dettrow. Frank just sighed and remarked that if anyone should ask, the order came from HIM. Frank’s a good man!

****

Our meeting with Federal Agent Mosher and his boss Federal Agent George Rhine occurred at the Bibliotheque Café over afternoon tea, although neither Frank nor I ate or drank anything. Rhine spent most of the time moaning about his working conditions and making small talk; skirting round the absence of one foreign embassy chauffeur. He told us that they were on an important mission and that the information Dettrow was supplying could save thousands of lives in the next few weeks. But I was only interested in the life of one six-year-old boy, currently missing. I got up and walked away, disgusted.

Back outside I found Stavros waiting by the car. He reported that the boy had been found alive in an alley across from his parents' wine bar. We drove there immediately.

****

I arrived in the alley just in time to see Crocker carrying the kid out. He looked at me and nodded to let me know that the boy was shaken, but otherwise appeared unharmed. He then carried Peter over to his parents who were waiting by an ambulance. Crocker handed him over, said a few word to them, and then walked away. I followed behind and noticed Frank standing across the road with Federal Agent Rhine. At that point a patrol officer came over and passed on a message for me to phone Saperstein. 

****

Saperstein had been waiting for my call and reported that he’d tailed Federal Agent Mosher to Battery Park and that Dettrow was also there. Naturally Federal Agent Rhine wanted to know what the call had been about, but I just told him it was related to another case we’re working on. By this time I’d had enough of the Feds to last a lifetime. It was time to end this, OUR way. We drove to the park as fast as we could. Saperstein met us and pointed to where our ‘targets’ were. We were half way across the grass when a shot rang out. Running across the park we found Mosher lying against a tree; he’d been stabbed and was in a bad way. Lying on the ground not far away was the body of an oriental gentleman; he’d been shot in the back. Crocker identified him as the man he'd seen with Dettrow at the Waterfront and then set off to find a doctor. Stavros set off after Dettrow who was running toward the park exit. Crocker returned with a Medic, but there was nothing he could do. In a last minute attempt to make amends Mosher told us to look in the dead man’s coat pocket where Saperstein found an envelope containing some microfilm, he also informed us of the new identity Dettrow had been provided with curtesy of the FBI. Before he died he asked if Dettrow had harmed a kid. I couldn’t bring myself to tell the truth, so I told him the kid had been found at a neighbour’s house and that he was fine. 

Stavros came running up to say he’d lost Dettrow in the crowd, but I wasn’t giving up that easily. I ran to my car and gave chase. Crocker grabbed Sapperstein and the two off them headed off in HIS car. Central reported that a member of the public had reported a cab being hijacked near the park entrance and had written down the make and model; a 1976 Compass, and the licence plate number. I figured Dettrow would be trying to make for the airport and headed north to Queens. Somewhere along the way the cab had been spotted by a patrol car which was now in close pursuit and the officers had been able to radio their location. 

Finally we got lucky, half way along a narrow street we caught up with the cab; a patrol car coming towards it had managed to block the road ahead, and Crocker, who had arrived at the scene just before me managed to block the road behind. Dettrow had leapt from the cab and was trying to climb a wire fence but Crocker had pulled his gun on the man and ordered him down. Almost immediately our prisoner started complaining; ‘you can’t arrest me, I’m a member of the international community, I have diplomatic immunity,’ etc etc. The same old spiel I heard at the precinct earlier. I gave Saperstein the honour of putting the cuffs on and then Crocker and I led Dettrow out into the road where we saw a large black diplomatic vehicle approaching. Frank had contacted Dettrow's embassy and they'd dispatched a 'clean-up' team. I also noticed Federal Agent Rhine watching from across the road. Too late baby, you had your chance!

Dettrow went rigid and started to panic. NOW he decided he needed our help and begged us to take him to a hospital for treatment. The car pulled up next to us and two large gentlemen shoved a screaming Dettrow inside. Crocker took great pleasure in slamming the car door shut. We stood watching as the embassy vehicle drove away. I looked across at my detective, but his face was blank. I nudged his arm and asked if he was alright, he said he was – now.

****

Later in the evening I decided to pay a visit to the wine bar to see how the boy was. I’d taken him a little something as a gift. To my surprise the kid was happily running round the bar as if nothing had happened. His father asked if we’d caught the man who’d taken his son. I assured him the man was now on his way back to his own country where they’d do a lot more to him that we would have done had he remained in the United States. Montoya told me that he sees all kinds of people every day in the bar; hears what they say and do to one another. He figured that as cops we must see far worse and wondered how we can stand it. I looked again at Peter, who was playing with the toy police car I’d bought. 

“I look at it this way,” I told him, “we meet some of the bad people, but we meet a lot of the good people.” I smiled as Peter looked up gave me a huge grin. THAT I could take anytime.


End file.
